ATTO and Emulex certify interoperability of End-to-End 16Gb Fibre Channel Solutions

ATTO’s 16Gb Fibre Channel to SAS/SATA FastStream™ SC 9000 RAID storage controller, FibreConnect™ 1600 Fibre Channel switches and FibreBridge™ 6500 Fibre Channel to SAS/SATA bridge have achieved full certification and seamless compatibility with Emulex LightPulse® Gen 5 Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs). Gen 5 Fibre Channel - the new name to specify the latest generation of Emulex 16Gb Fibre Channel HBA products - is designed for the virtualization, cloud and database era, and delivers more than higher I/O operations per second (IOPS) performance and throughput. Emulex Gen 5 HBAs deliver Increased SAN reliability, data integrity/availability, management simplicity, reduced operational costs across the data center, and performance acceleration for virtualization and mission-critical applications.

The continued strength of the Fibre Channel market is evidenced through recent data published by Infonetics Research, a respected market research firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, who reinforced significant growth in Q1 of 2013, primarily driven by the introduction of 16Gb Fibre Channel into SAN infrastructures. Fibre Channel SANs deliver the benefit of better disk utilization via shared storage across multiple servers on a resilient, low latency and high throughput storage infrastructure. The cleanliness of Fibre Channel architecture, along with the protocol being managed by the ASIC, allows for exceptional I/O capabilities while delivering efficient CPU utilization, scalability, availability and resource sharing attributes.

The technology-based partnership between ATTO and Emulex ensures the strength of an end-to-end Fibre Channel solution. “Fibre Channel is the primary storage technology that scales from SMB through Enterprise applications," said Wayne Arvidson, Vice President of Marketing for ATTO. "Certifying Emulex LightPulse Gen 5 Fibre Channel HBAs for use with our FastStream, FibreBridge and FibreConnect products gives our customers the confidence that their storage infrastructure will have the highest performance and lowest latency over any other solution on the market.”

The ATTO FastStream SC 9000, introduced at IBC 2012 in Amsterdam, holds the distinction as the first available and shipping 16Gb storage system on the market. It is the only Fibre Channel RAID head that allows IT managers and digital media professionals to easily create their own fully-scalable 16Gb SAN storage solution. System builders have the ability to embed the FastStream into an ATX form factor storage server to create a license-free and surprisingly affordable high capacity storage array. With numerous scalable options, FastStream supports up to 512TB of RAID protected shared storage using HDD or SSD Drive technology. FastStream storage controllers are engineered for demanding real-time applications which require managed latency for high-volume collaborative workflows, and include ATTO’s exclusive Advanced Data Streaming (ADS™) and DriveAssure™ technologies to ensure maximum performance.

The ATTO FibreConnect™ 1600 series of 16Gb Fibre Channel switches are engineered to deliver smooth and reliable data transfer over a SAN for mission critical applications, such as video streaming and virtualized environments. When combined with the Emulex Gen 5 HBAs, FibreConnect switches provide complete SAN connectivity with high-bandwidth, low latency and the lowest power consumption in the industry.

The ATTO FibreBridge 6500 allows the use of direct attached SAS/SATA disk or tape storage devices in the Fibre Channel SAN environment while providing management and monitoring capabilities not available in native technologies. FibreBridge is engineered to integrate seamlessly with Fibre Channel and SAS specifications to assure easy installation and flawless operation.

“ATTO is again an industry leader in next-generation Fibre Channel solutions that solves the highest bandwidth demands for content creation and enterprise markets,” said Shaun Walsh, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development at Emulex. “FastStream is one of the first shipping 16Gb Fibre Channel RAID solution in the marketplace and together with Emulex Gen 5 HBAs, we offer a complete solution that addresses the growing demands of today’s data centers, which feature the fastest processors and highest density servers for cloud and virtualized applications.”